Chapter 163: I Won't Let It Slip Away

When the world turns cruel, there are few people you can trust.

In that sense, the trust between the Supreme Archmages and the Gun Wizards was an extremely useful asset. When the world grows cold, so does the truth. Gun Wizards who might be ruthless but actually help me survive right now are better than non-wizards who panic and uselessly beg to be saved.

Sergeant Im Junho and his squad were one such group.

-Rattle!

While Lee Sejun and Hamza lowered the shutter of Hanmaeum Pharmacy, I faced Sergeant Im Junho as he approached through the darkness with a flashlight switched on. He was a rough-looking man, striding toward me while rubbing the blue-black stubble on his chin.

Sergeant Im Junho looked over the Supreme Archmages, his tanned skin and the wrinkles around his eyes on full display, then let out a long sigh.

"Aphorism. Now that I look at you, you’re all damn kids.”

"Is that all you have to say?”

Aah—. I really didn’t want to show my true strength in a place like this.

But I guess I have no choice.

Is it time to demonstrate the power of a man licensed to kill across the Korean Peninusla?

That was when a cold, frosty chill swept across my chest.

Sergeant Im Junho waved his fluorescent armband and held out his hand. He was offering a handshake.

"Damn nice to meet you. Sergeant Im Junho. I’ve got 6 squad members here with me.”

"6?”

-Clasp!

I gladly accepted Sergeant Im Junho’s handshake. He was 20 years older than me, almost a full generation, but in this absurd situation, strength commanded more respect than age. Sergeant Im Junho apparently was enough of a man to understand that obvious truth, because he gripped my hand tightly and shook it.

"Two died. Anyone expecting nobody to die in this shitshow would have to be a fucking idiot.”

"No. I’m surprised you managed to keep that many alive.”

"As expected of people who went into Seoul and made it back out through sheer grit and guts. Boys, it’s Aphorism. Our side’s strongest wizards.”

Only then did the soldiers hiding behind the medicine shelves in the darkness cautiously reveal themselves.

There was a loud clatter of guns, and every last one of them was fully equipped. They had even taken off the dog-tag armbands that soldiers from the blockade line normally wore at all times. Gas masks and CBRN protective suits. It had to be hot enough to roast them alive, but though they panted, not one of them took theirs off.

Perhaps deciding it was safe now, one of the soldiers flipped on the pharmacy’s power switch.

-Click.

While everyone squinted at the sudden brightness, the soldiers formed a line and walked back behind the medicine shelves. I watched to see what they were doing and found their dog-tag armbands neatly stacked up there. As they put the armbands back on one by one and switched their fire selectors to safe, I felt a strange mixture of resignation and iron military discipline from them.

The first person to move after seeing those soldiers was the pastor.

Pastor Park Yohan pulled up his gas mask and exposed his bare face, then looked between Sergeant Im Junho and me before letting out a short, weary breath.

"Maybe praying will at least bring them some comfort. I should hand out some of the chocolate I brought too. Sergeant Im, any objections?”

"Chocolate? Pastor of Aphorism, looks like you already stocked up. Sounds good to us. We barely brought anything because we were too busy being cautious.”

"I’ll help too, Pastor!”

"Goodness, you really do have a kind heart, Ryeoha-ssi. Hmm…Please keep being kind.”

The pastor, who went from delighted to awkward, and Go Ryeoha, hoarder of non-wizards, hurried over to the soldiers. Lee Sejun and Hamza lowered the shutter, checked that the door was locked, then tore the curtains off the pharmacy windows, rolled them up, and stuffed them into the gaps around the door.

"Sejun-ssi, we have to stop any light from leaking out. The monsters in this world…in 5TB Phone World, their intelligence is much higher. I don’t know how long the other survivors managed to resist, but at the very least, the monsters know survivors depend on light.”

"Hamza-ssi, instead of standing there and babbling, go tear down another curtain.”

Both Sergeant Im Junho and I were looking over the Supreme Archmages one by one.

Sergeant Im Junho seemed to be paying close attention as he tried to quickly figure out what kind of people each of the Supreme Archmages he’d just met were. Of course, I was using Ears-branch, Stage 1 [Mind Reading] to figure out what the Sergeant was thinking.

'They’re far too trusting. Could just be confidence. Damn. Well, if three of them can supposedly wipe out an entire monster-infested town in 30 minutes, I guess it makes sense.’

Hah, seriously…

Thank God I’m wearing a gas mask. Even if the corners of my eyes lifted, it wouldn’t show that easily. The mask also completely hid the corners of my mouth twitching upward along with them.

Thanks to that, I, Baek Jemin, could preserve the image of a man unmoved even by such flattering remarks.

Not that I’d ever be shaken by hearing something so obvious in the first place.

The corners of my mouth were only twitching because I was pleased to see the Supreme Archmages naturally dividing up their roles.

Of course, from the Supreme Archmages’ perspective, it was only natural to leave negotiations with outside groups to this Baek Jemin, the proven negotiator whose astonishing diplomatic ability had already brought several negotiations to successful conclusions.

Meanwhile, my cold reason was evaluating Sergeant Im Junho.

For starters, he didn’t seem to be planning an ambush or surprise attack, he hadn’t been hypnotized or brainwashed, and I couldn’t hear anything from him when I used [Hearing Monster Voices], so I judged him to be innocent. At the very least, he was more trustworthy than the other survivor groups in 5TB Phone World, and his combat ability had already been proven. He’d be useful alive.

The moment I reached that conclusion, the invisible divide between Sergeant Im Junho and me closed.

I grabbed the chin strap and pulled up my gas mask. Sergeant Im Junho raised an eyebrow and tapped the chest of his CBRN protective suit.

"Want a smoke?”

"I don’t smoke.”

"I’d heard you MZ kids these days don’t drink or smoke, but damn. If you don’t, then what the hell do you even live for?”

Of course, Sergeant Im Junho didn’t actually pull out a pack of cigarettes either.

Instead, apparently disappointed, he picked a cotton swab out of a box sitting on top of the medicine shelf, stuck it between his lips like a cigarette, and pretended to puff on it. I guess he wanted a smoke but couldn’t have one.

Just what you’d expect from a special operator who came from the blockade line. He was absolutely meticulous about light discipline.

"We already turned the lights on to check for monsters or drive them out. Why not just smoke one?”

"Gotta save lighter fuel. We might not need it to boil drinking water, but we still need a way to chase those monster fuckers off.”

"?"

"Hm?"

Sergeant Im Junho and I stared at each other and blinked.

"Monsters are afraid of fire?"

"Some are. Actually, rather than some, most of the monsters I’ve seen were.”

Sergeant Im Junho snapped the cotton swab between his teeth and spat it out as his eyes lit up. Then he roughly rubbed the back of his hand over his blue-black stubbled jaw before staring straight at me and tapping his armband.

"But for such a fresh-faced kid, you're already acting like a sly old fox. How about you start talking too instead of just trying to pry things out of me?”

"I was taught to keep quiet when my elders are talking.”

"Haah~ Those eyes of yours look like you wouldn't listen to an elder even if they beat it into you. Never! Ever! What are you talking about?”

I gave Im Junho a slight glare, feeling offended.

Sure, I’d used my cram-school money to buy a month at a PC bang, thrown away my backpack and climbed the wall to ditch night study, and once summarized 30 days of vacation diary entries onto a single page because I couldn’t be bothered to write them, but I’d never disobeyed an adult.

Just like the adults told me, I’d taken my beatings, screamed, and paid for it with my own body. This slander was deeply offensive.

Still, thanks to that, it was true that I felt more comfortable speaking freely around Sergeant Im Junho.

"Then Sergeant Im, since you’re telling me to ask, how are the people at Suji-gu Fire Station? Can we talk to them?”

"Hmm. That’s right. If you're a man, don’t just test the waters. Just come straight out with it.”

Sergeant Im smirked, seeming satisfied, then straightened himself, returned to a serious expression, and spoke in a stiffer tone.

"Back when the world was peaceful, they were the kind of people I wouldn’t have wanted to strike up a conversation with.”

"Are the survivors here really that bad?”

I asked, half out of curiosity and half wondering whether he was exaggerating, to which Sergeant Im clicked his tongue.

"They’re firefighters, so they can fight at least. There are plenty of bastards who are completely useless and have even shittier tempers than them.”

He must’ve had a lot bottled up.

Sergeant Im Junho and I wandered around the pharmacy as we talked about the realities of 5TB Phone World. Most of what he told me was slightly exaggerated so this middle-aged uncle could brag about his exploits, but that was enough for me.

Using the Baek Jemin Method of Understanding, I cut away the chunks of extra fat he’d added and got to the key points.

As a Hands-branch wizard, special operator Im Junho had a fairly high survival rate among his allies, thanks to Hands-branch, Stage 1 [Blood of the Right Hand]. Since [Blood of the Right Hand] could not only enhance equipment but also help secure a shelter, the squad naturally gathered around this special operator whether they liked it or not.

As long as Sergeant Im Junho was willing to bleed, he could bolster their reserve firepower, help drive monsters back in an emergency, and make their shelters considerably safer. In an extreme situation where monsters could attack them at any moment, those were overwhelming advantages. Sergeant Im Junho had used them as leverage to successfully establish contact with the local survivor groups.

That was also why Sergeant Im Junho’s squad had settled in Hanmaeum Pharmacy.

"At least the medicine here hasn’t expired yet, and there’s plenty of stuff we recognize, so it’s useful for first aid. No point going to a hospital when I’ve never set foot in med school and wouldn’t even know what to use. Tourniquets, bandages, gauze, and disinfectant are way more useful. Hospitals would also have had more places to secure and more people around, so the potential danger we’d face would be much higher.”

"I heard there’s an Eyes-branch wizard named Sergeant Kim Junbeom. What are Eyes-branch wizards actually like?”

"Eyes-branch wizards are great at detection and reconnaissance, and they can find you a way through in a crisis…but you know how it is. In the end, an army runs on logistics and readiness. If everything runs on improvisation, that’s not a military mission, but a survival game. Sergeant Kim’s still young, so even though he’s got plenty of drive, you can tell he’s a little weak when it comes to long-term planning. Either that, or he found something worth worrying about. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

That was when I realized that in a world without the military’s full backing, the relative value of each branch of magic under ordinary circumstances was far different from what I’d expected.

And that the special operators and the squads assigned under them basically operated on the assumption that there would be no artillery support or additional reinforcements from the military.

Sergeant Im Junho stared at the shutter Lee Sejun and Hamza had closed and idly fiddled with his helmet. With Lee Sejun and Hamza’s bickering voices playing like background music beside us, Sergeant Im Junho shook his head.

"Sure, reinforcements come. Command says they’ll provide artillery support, conduct reconnaissance, and send additional troops. In those cases Eyes-branch wizards are great to have and all. But you know how it is.”

"..."

"There aren’t that many lucky people who can hold out against monsters like those until reinforcement arrives. It was already like that back when people were shooting at other people. Honestly, telling yourself you’ll hold out against monsters like that because support is coming is just lying to yourself. I’m glad I’m a Hand-branch wizard. I hear Eyes-branch wizards have to keep fighting after every spell while forcing themselves through all the tears and snot pouring out of them. I just need to cut my hand and keep my boys alive like that.”

My conversation with Sergeant Im Junho had drifted somewhat from its original purpose, but it was a huge help in quickly understanding what the Republic of Korea in the changed Supreme World was actually like.

Stripping down and organizing what Sergeant Im Junho told me, it basically went like this.

All wizard combat assets fall under Reality Survival Command, publicly known as [Quarantine Command]. Within it, the Joint Alteration Operations Group handles tier classifications of civilian Operators, pays their wages, brokers assignments, and distributes personnel according to the demand for civilian Operators at each base.

They had originally been fielded as specialist soldiers, but policy changed to treat them all as NCOs, turning them into special operators. These special operators belong to Reality Survival Command = Quarantine Command and are deployed either at the request of Blockade Command or at Reality Survival Command’s own discretion.

Their magical realm was low, but the overwhelming majority were not Post-Consent conscripts. Most were troops from the blockade lines, so their level of training was considerable. At least when it comes to fighting monsters, they display almost animal-like instincts and are rated among the most elite combat forces.

Whether driven by vengeance for fallen comrades, by a sense of duty gained from answering the mobilization order and fighting monsters, or by having their families’ safety guaranteed, they were trusted to such an extent that if the entire command staff was wiped out in the field, they could even be granted acting command authority.

But the drawbacks were obvious as well.

The special operators were extraordinarily brutal toward civilians, so Supreme Command was trying to reduce the number of situations where they came into contact with civilians.

The International Criminal Court suspected them of committing vicious war crimes against civilians. Meanwhile, the Korean-US Combined Command’s high command recognized that their operational effectiveness was proportional to their brutality, deploying them throughout the blockade lines while keeping them out of public view.

Sergeant Im Junho was no exception.

Perhaps assuming the Supreme Archmages would understand, Im Junho still let out a hearty laugh even though he deliberately kept his voice down, aware of the monsters possibly outside.

"This isn’t our world, but another one, right? That, uh, multiverse thing? One look at this mess and I can tell exactly why it went under. Tsk.”

"I call it 5TB Phone World.”

"Still went under, didn’t it? Human rights, precious lives, justice, having to save everybody…They kept spewing bullshit without knowing how the real world works, and that’s how every last one of them ended up turning into monsters, right? And then seeing everyone lose their damn minds after the country already collapsed is just so damn infuriating. These are the kind of bastards who’d have protected a zombie because ‘It’s family’ and gotten bitten for it. If they’d pulled that shit in front of me, I would’ve smashed every last one of their heads in. I’m worried Seongchun-hyung’s a little too softhearted as well.”

"Softhearted?”

"I mean, what kind of sense does it make to shoot something, see it stop moving, and call it done? You burn every last one. When monsters disguised as little kids can come jumping out at you, you need to burn them until there isn’t a single scrap of flesh left. Then you don’t have to worry about whether it’s human or not. Clean and simple, right?”

-Flinch!

My gaze slid toward Go Ryeoha before I even realized it. Sure enough, Go Ryeoha, who had been smiling brightly while helping the pastor take care of the soldiers, abruptly went silent. She didn’t show it, but I knew better than anyone that she was sensitive to her surroundings and to sound.

She heard all of it. Fuck…

The pastor broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly began fussing over Go Ryeoha.

"Goodness. Ryeoha-ssi, you’re tired, right? Why don’t we listen to the Lord’s word and pray together with an Amen~? How about it?”

"..."

"If you listen to the words of Jesus, your anger will settle and your heart will fill with love for your neighbors and enemies. He’s on a completely different level from evil spirits that try to steal people’s bodies. I’ll find some good passages from the Four Gospels or Psalms for you, Ryeoha-ssi. Okay?"

-Creeeep…

The atmosphere around Go Ryeoha was ready to explode at any moment.

Cold sweat ran down my face as I decided to open my mouth and drag the derailed conversation back on track.

Pastor, you goddamn idiot, you’re suggesting that shit to Go Ryeoha, who comes from a family of shamans?

But pointing it out felt like it might make someone physically explode, so I kept my mouth shut. Instead, I placated Sergeant Im and returned to the main topic.

"We’ve heard enough about Supreme World, so let’s get back to 5TB Phone World. Tell us how you made a deal with the people at the fire station and what kind of information they can give us.”

"Whew…Sorry about that. I got frustrated and went off on a tangent. If this place was going to call itself the Republic of Korea, it could’ve at least done a decent job. Haah. It’s just a damn shame, that’s all. Tsk. Anyway, back to the firefighters in Suji, Yongin.”

I barely managed to relax, but at the same time, a doubt crept into my mind.

What could survivors of the Republic of Korea in 5TB Phone World, a country that had completely collapsed in no more than 48 hours, possibly still have to offer?

Just as I was taking several deep breaths to keep my expectations in check, Sergeant Im spoke, and I immediately understood why he had decided to maintain contact with the Suji firefighters.

"They say they'll give us knowledge and information about the people who taught them magic. In exchange, they want firearms and ammunition, along with military ties for mutual survival cooperation.”

* * *

5TB Phone World. October 22nd, 2038, 4:28 AM.

-Rattle!

The shutter rolled up.

Sergeant Im Junho and his squad, already fully geared up, immediately secured the area and exchanged hand signals. Then they looked up at the sky, still pitch-black but about to brighten, and exhaled sharply.

The soldiers’ breaths hissing through their gas mask filters sounded far rougher, sharper, and more chilling.

-Hiisssss……

"Clear. We’ll proceed with caution.”

At Sergeant Im Junho’s words, the soldiers surrounded us Supreme Archmages and began covering every direction. Now this finally felt like some proper VIP treatment. Every time they moved, the dog tags tied to their armbands clattered against each other, sounding like little bells.

The owner of the poncho with the rabbit brooch, Go Ryeoha, spoke in a cold, hardened voice from inside her gas mask the moment she heard the sound.

"Those things are drawing more attention than necessary. Can’t you take them all off?”

Vicious. Absolutely vicious.

Just as a chill seemed to creep down the back of my neck, Sergeant Im Junho finished checking the chamber of his gun and pulled the charging handle.

-Click.

"Monsters react to sound too. If we’re ambushed by monsters while we’re wearing these armbands, they’ll target us before Aphorism.”

Sergeant Im Junho, the owner of the fluorescent armband, looked back at us with a hardened gaze hidden beneath his gas mask.

"I’ll lead the way.”

There were two major fire stations in Suji.

One was the main station to the west, while the other was more like a small local safety center in the northeast. The one we Supreme Archmages and Sergeant Im Junho’s squad were heading toward was the northeastern safety center.

The roadside leading there revealed pure chaos and panic.

The roads were in far worse shape than they had been on the outskirts. One car had smashed into a streetlight, leaving its engine fully exposed beneath the crumpled bumper, while a truck had veered the wrong way and plowed straight into a restaurant.

Oil from the wrecked vehicles and bloody runoff from stains where no flesh remained had mixed into a dark-red sludge that dripped one drop at a time into the sewers.

Even so, the streetlights illuminating the road began flickering out one by one. The sky was still dim beneath the thick storm clouds, but the streetlights kept their strict schedules. Once even the lights disappeared from streets already devoid of people, the atmosphere grew even more menacing.

-Clackclackclack…Click…

Wondering what that sound was, I moved my eyes around and soon found its source. Hamza. The bastard thought no one could see beneath his gas mask, so he was trembling hard enough for his teeth to chatter. He had a K2 in his hands, but the selector was still set to safe, and he never once put his finger on the trigger.

He was doing his best in his own way to keep himself from panicking and accidentally shooting someone.

The only ones relaxed here were me and Lee Sejun.

Lee Sejun wandered around with his machine gun while checking whether the soldiers had overlooked anything, while I simply held my rifle loosely and focused on walking at a steady pace. When Sergeant Im Junho stepped with his left foot, I stepped with my left. When he stepped with his right, I stepped with my right.

Even while amusing myself with some impromptu drill practice, I never dropped my guard.

Ears-branch, Stage 2 [Hearing Monster Voices].

It was an indoctrinating spell that hammered a pessimistic worldview into your head by showing you just how insignificant the consciousness and self of a human trapped inside the flesh of Eternity truly were, but its effectiveness was flawless.

From beyond the increasingly chaotic roads and traces of slaughter as we moved toward Seoul, I unexpectedly started to hear cheers.

Naturally, they weren’t real cheers.

I frowned, shuddering at the backlash of my increasingly powerful Ears-branch magic. My mind forcibly understood even the emotions contained within the monsters’ screams and the dying cries they made while imitating humans.

A scream. The despair of someone endlessly dwelling on what they had lost.

Even as they mixed together within their flickering reason, they screamed because they still couldn’t let go of themselves.

Joy. And yet, they rejoiced because they could still hurt people.

Only in the moment they merged with another person, only when they harmed someone who was still whole, could they clearly remember what they themselves had once been.

A cry. But after hurting someone, they realized what they had done and wailed.

The dying cries released as an intact person mixed together and broke apart forced them to remember what they themselves had done as humans, so they screamed.

Oblivion. But as time passed, they forgot.

They forgot what they had done and surrendered to the flesh of Eternity so they wouldn’t lose themselves within their flickering identities. The flesh of Eternity carved into them the truth that humans couldn’t overcome pain.

Sorrow. At last, they understood and wept.

To those who looked down on mental suffering, to humans who believed physical pain was everything, it imposed that belief upon them through the body and declared that they had been right. Through the flesh of Eternity, it exposed human will and the human soul as illusions.

In other words, it affirmed the answer of those who placed the mind beneath the body and claimed physical suffering outweighed mental suffering.

Eternity forced them to face the truth that human beings were never inherently noble or sublime. It forced them to confront the fact that humans were just another kind of animal.

Those who believed humanity was special had collapsed before that truth, and would continue to collapse.

.....

But I couldn’t let myself be swept away by the torrent of emotion. I had to coldly sort through their voices and feelings and distinguish the types and numbers of monsters.

That was what it meant to be an Ears-branch wizard.

The duty of one who wielded Ears-branch magic, the branch symbolizing fate and detection.

"Five Amalgams. Dying.”

No answer came back.

Sergeant Im Junho and his squad were the first to act, having cleverly understood what I meant by ‘dying.’ They immediately exchanged hand signals, repeated the order back, crouched low and hurried toward an abandoned vehicle ahead in a duck-walk.

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

Check inside the windows. Check the doors. Check the gaps around the vehicle.

They were doing all that despite wearing CBRN protective gear that had to make quick movement quite difficult. Even we Supreme Archmages awkwardly lowered our bodies and followed behind them. Sergeant Im Junho and his squad were proving that they hadn’t survived this long because of mere luck.

Sergeant Im Junho and one senior soldier pulled out hand mirrors they had brought, placed them beneath the vehicle, and shone lights around while checking different angles. The other four continuously watched the surroundings with their muzzles raised.

-Sssp, hisss…

The soldiers’ increasingly sharp and rough breathing leaked through their gas mask filters. Their sweat-soaked faces were visible even through the lenses, but Sergeant Im Junho put away his flashlight and put the hand mirror back.

"No monsters disguised as corpses. Five Amalgams. If they're dying somewhere nearby, then probably.”

No one needed him to finish his sentence.

Lee Sejun clicked his tongue as he unfolded the bipod on his machine gun and set it atop the now-cleared vehicle.

"We’ll prepare with firepower first.”

-Clack.

Amid the overlapping clatter of metal, I heard the soldiers let out small sighs of relief at the fact that Captain Korea Lee Sejun, our mobile machine gunner, was with us.

Meanwhile, we decided to watch the fight unfolding near the safety center in the distance.

Beyond the roadside littered with horribly shattered windows, toppled street stalls, and cars sitting silently wedged into sidewalks, I could see around five or six firefighters. Their yellow helmets and turnout gear made them stand out immediately.

Apparently Sergeant Im Junho hadn’t been exaggerating when he said they knew how to fight.

-Thud, thud, thud…

Amid the loud impacts, Amalgams that looked like they had devoured five people each were carrying out an encirclement.

The Amalgams of 5TB Phone World were clever and cunning, and knew better than anyone that human attention was limited. They tore handfuls from their tangled heads, stuffed them into corpses and threw them to disrupt the humans’ formation.

But these firefighters weren’t ordinary people.

-Splat!

Disgusting Amalgam fluids sprayed through the air and struck the vehicle. But the people were safe. Just before the fluids hit, the targeted firefighter had darted behind the fire engine with nimble movements. A Heart-branch wizard.

By the time the corpse containing the mangled head matter rose grotesquely to its feet, two other firefighters who had been waiting were already moving.

-Click.

One firefighter had a fire hose tucked under his arm, while another waited by the fire hydrant. One of the pair opened the hydrant. As a sharp stream of water blasted outward, the firefighter kneeling on the ground and screaming shouted,

"Coming! Left!”

The fire hose swung around.

The main body, returning after throwing out its offshoot, staggered backward under the pressure of the water. In the meantime, the passenger-side door opened beside the Heart-branch firefighter hiding behind the fire engine. The firefighter hurriedly climbing out in a gas mask and yellow helmet was holding two fire axes.

-Whooosh—.

The two fire axes were split between them. One went to the Heart-branch firefighter, while the firefighter from the passenger seat kept the other.

The screaming firefighter shouted again.

"Two! Coming around the front of the vehicle!"

The fire hose swung around.

But it was too late.

-Thud!

Heavy weight landed on the rear of the vehicle and the limbs of headless people flopped loosely around. The Amalgam of 5TB Phone World didn’t even let out dying cries. They didn’t roll their compound eyes around and immediately charge either. Instead, they fought by splitting their own heads apart and dividing themselves among corpses.

Both Amalgams that had climbed onto the fire engine began splitting their heads as though they were melting, dropping corpses down one after another.

At that moment, gunfire rang out, interrupting the firefighters’ highlight reel.

-Ratatatatatatatatatatatata—!!!

Shell casings flew.

I wondered who the hell was shooting, only to realize it was Lee Sejun, who had finished setting up his machine gun.

"Take cover! Get down!”

Apparently, he had decided that stopping the monsters by shooting first mattered more than worrying about friendly fire.

The other Supreme Archmages began raising their guns as well, and Sergeant Im Junho’s squad prepared for a gunfight. These crazy bastards. We finally found people we could actually talk to, and their first instinct was still to start shooting.

Clicking my tongue, I focused my mind for the first time in a while.

If you’re a wizard, you should handle things intelligently when friendly fire is a concern. How are you supposed to pull off a clever solution with some non-wizard’s mindset of just shooting first?

I grabbed the chin strap and pulled my gas mask up slightly.

With this much breathing room, I could afford to ignore something as trivial as the stench of blood.

I stuck out my tongue, bleeeh—, and used a spell that was exceptionally effective in situations like this.

It was time for Great Archmage Baek Jemin to shine.

Upright Alteration-type, Tongue-branch, Stage 2 [Desire Amplification], 100%.

—Desire to sleep. 

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